


Running from the Inevitable

by guineamania



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Multi, Pre-Relationship, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, character backstory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 17:34:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21922219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guineamania/pseuds/guineamania
Summary: Poe knew his past would catch up with him some day. He just hoped it wouldn't be for a while, and wouldn't be in the form of a stun baton and an irritating family friend
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey
Kudos: 43





	1. Before

**Author's Note:**

> So saw Rise of Skywalker - mixed emotions but mostly positive. More than happy to talk about it if anyone wants to.  
> MAJOR SPOILERS   
> …  
> So the whole spice runner thing - at first didn't sit well (racism and unnecessary) but then I started thinking about it and it fit into a lot of headcanons I have about Poe's childhood and so felt the need to write this. Hope you enjoy.  
> At least one more chapter coming.

When Poe came to he was in a less than ideal situation. Being arrested on Batuu was not a hassle, it was well known that nearly all shipments that passed through the old outpost had at least some criminal aspect and the forces manning the port were easily bought if you were caught. The main concern was the New Republic courts realising that they had a ship under Bliss and one of her pilots in their midst. Then more attention would be rained down on all of his aliases and the whole crew. Plus he would end up in a Republic jail which was not how he thought his life would go. So waking up with a throbbing head ache hand cuffed to a chair was not the main concern. The main concern was the fact he could feel the engines thrumming underneath his bare feet. There was no reason for him to be imprisoned on a ship, not unless they knew something they shouldn’t.

“Cody Zirral,” the door whirred open before Poe could make any move to formulate a plan.

“Where are you taking me? I, I haven’t done anything,” Poe kept his eyes low and submissive, staring at the tight laced boots of the commanding officer in front of him.

“Is that the defence you are going for Zirral? We found your identity docs and your name on a ship transporting parts for speeders to the outpost on Batuu,” the boots stepped closer and closer with every statement but Poe wasn’t new to this.

“Yes, that my business. I’m a runner to the outer rim for parts that Republic squads need. I am a pretty good mechanic and it gets me a fair way in these circles,” Poe deliberately cracked his voice to sound frantic as he tried to work through the fog his detainment caused.

“You’re a runner alright. Spice,” the Republic officer snarled and only then did Poe’s eyes shoot up. Plastering a picture of startled innocent over his face, Poe swore internally. That was a lot of stock and a perfectly good identity burnt.

“I, I wouldn’t. I’m a respected business owner, someone must of snuck it in. I can give you the name of the parts supplier, he must have tricked me,” Poe pleaded, the lieutenant in front of him looked experienced and stern. He knew the words weren’t going to do anything but prison was not on the agenda. There had to be some way out of here not in handcuffs.

“Actually Mr Zirral, we have reports of a ship that is remarkably similar to yours smuggling for Bliss. Mostly spice but also arms, illegal creatures, the list goes on. The name changes but the ship stays the same,” he continued reading off a holo-pad. They had him, they wanted Zorri. He would not give up his friend, his sister.

“What proof do you have of what I have been carrying on my ship. I carry ship and droid parts. Occasionally functioning droids, all my paperwork is complete,” Poe argued, it was time to get out of here. If he could feel the engines then this must just be a transport, no big ship would give off that level of vibrations. Hijacking a transport would get unwanted attention but not as much as rocking up in a New Republic interrogation cell on Chandrila. They had striped him down to just his trousers, pockets emptied, and white under shirt. His weapons gone, his jammer in his boots and lockpicks in his sleeves all away. If he could just get enough force he might be able to knock the bar loose.

“I have been authorised to offer you a deal. We will let you go free, return your papers, your ship no questions asked. If you tell us everything about the Bliss operation,” he looked up from the holopad derisively at the prisoner.

“I cannot tell you anything, I am not a member of the Bliss organisation,” Poe’s head rocked as he was backhanded cruelly.

“We know you are lying, and I can promise that the officers in Chandrila will be a lot less kind than I am,” the lieutenant pinned Poe’s jaw in his right hand. Poe smiled. And then headbutted.

When asked later, Poe would blatantly lie about how long it took him to get out of the handcuffs once the lieutenant was laid unconscious on the floor at his feet. But he made it in the end, and thankfully he managed to sneak around and knock out the other two guards before anyone noticed the cargo hold door was open. The pilot though, that was uglier than he would have liked. Poe had a rule; he didn’t kill Republic officers. Other smugglers and bounty hunters were fair game if they tried to infringe on his business. But Republic Officers had the risk of being someone he cared dearly about. And a cause he did still care about, even after everything. But the pilot was tied up, bleeding from a broken nose and protesting through the gag Poe had shoved in his mouth. Poe himself was settling into the pilot’s seat and cradling his maybe broken wrist. The door was locked to the cockpit in case any of his passengers woke up and Poe was preparing to just to light speed. He always did have the worst luck. After all the rubbish moments of fate in his life so far, even at twenty one, you would think the force would cut him a break. Before he got jump, Poe knew the sounds of magnets attaching to the top of a ship anywhere. Too late. “Republic vessel 228 prepare for docking,” a static filled voice filtered through the radio clearly waiting for a response.

“Received, docking ready,” Poe dropped his voice an octave and hoped that he could blag his way out of this.

“228 repeat, who is this and where is Pilot Kennet?” what was with his luck today.

“This is Lieutenant Maher, Kennet is preparing to dock,” Poe lied through his teeth but knew he had to move, now.

“Identity code, Lieutenant Maher,” Poe ran. Ran out the cockpit door and down to the hold, all ships of this class had to have escape pod somewhere. Skidding round the corner, still shoeless after his belongings were confiscated, and ran right into an armoured soldier.

“Come on,” Poe shouted, kneeing one on the gut before his whole world lit up in a roar of pain and electricity. He hated stun batons.

Waking up from a deep unconsciousness twice within a day, probably, was not to be advised. This time, after a couple of attempts Poe was able to move his limbs freely. Everything still tingled but Poe took stock of his surroundings as he rolled out his shoulders. It was a cell, a detainment cell in the Republic barracks on Chandrila if he had to guess. He had been dumped on a camp bed but the room was otherwise unfurnished with a heavy steel door. He wasn’t getting out of here quickly. Poe sat there, for what could have easily been hours before the door clunked open. “Hello Poe,” a familiar face smiled softly as the pilot leant on the door frame.

“Captain Antilles,” Poe gripped his leg tightly and swung his legs back up onto the bed to face away from the door. “Who told you where I was?” he asked, voice dejected and monotone.

“Han ran into a Bliss operation being headed by a hot shot Yavinese pilot going by Cody Zirral. He caught a glimpse of you on the escape and told Lando,” Wedge explained, thankfully not moving from the doorway.

“Who then told Leia who then told you,” he sighed, resting his head against the wall and closing his eyes.

“You should be thankful, he didn’t tell your father,” it was the mention of Kes which finally got Poe’s attention.

“Why are you here Wedge?” the last thing Poe wanted was a trip down memory lane with one of his mother’s closest friends.

“I’m here to get you to come home. This has gone on too long now, your dad wants you back,” Wedge finally stepped fully into the room, shut the door and leant on that instead.

“I’m not coming back. Nothing you do can make me, if you drag me there I will leave again. That life was too small for me you know that,” Poe pursed his lips, returning to pointedly not looking at Wedge.

“Don’t try to lie to me Poe I looked after you as a kid I know you,” Wedge snapped before sighing and looking at the floor. “We were all hurt when Shara died, especially the way it happened. For you to find her like that,” Wedge’s voice faded away but Poe would not fill the silence. He would not get drawn into this. “And then Ben,” Wedge knew what he was doing and he knew how to strike a nerve.

“Do not talk to me about Ben,” Poe snarled, slamming the flat end of his fist against the wall in frustration.

“We can’t go on like this Poe. What Ben did was not your fault, no one saw it coming,” Wedge insisted.

“I should have done!” Poe couldn’t stop himself. “I was his friend, his only friend and he was mine. I thought we understood each other. I should have seen what was happening to him before he, he,” Poe knew he was screaming but he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t find the words.

“Staying away just hurts everyone. If you stay down this road you are going to run yourself to ruin. Your dad loves you, your grandpa misses you. Leia, Han, Lando, L’ulo care for you kid. When are you going to realise this mission to punish yourself is only serving to hurt those around you,” Wedge argued, running a hand through his hair to stop it fidgeting.

“I can’t, not after everything. I’m good at this Wedge and I have a crew, people relying on me,” Poe returned to staring at his bent knees as he spoke.

“You have three options kid and only these. One, I let you go and you return to your crew and spice smuggling days with a new identity. Your dad spends all his time alone on Yavin four wondering if the next time he hears your name you are going to be dead in some pit somewhere. Then you either can’t pull of a daring escape and get arrested or die trying. We can’t keep protecting you like this. Either way you throw away your life and a once in a generation tenacity for flying,” Poe began to interrupt but Wedge silenced him with a wave. “Two, I let you go and your leave your criminal past behind you before finding a nice moon somewhere and maybe open a farm or something. At least this way you will survive but alone, knowing you left behind your family and disappointing your mother’s legacy. Three, and I really hope you pick three, I let you go and you grab a bottle of the most expensive whisky you can find, give it to your dad and hope he can forgive you. Then next solar cycle you come back here and join my boy Temmin in the academy. Finally honouring your mother and putting your skills to their best use.”

Wedge was as good as his word and let Poe go, gave him a jacket and some boots as well as his credit chip back but no weapon or keys to ship. But on the other hand, Poe couldn’t let Wedge’s words go. He just found himself walking and thinking. Wedge was often right; it was an annoying trait of his. Maybe it was time to stop hiding from anyone who reminded him of what happened with Ben. He didn’t mean to hurt people but it seemed to be his default setting. But could he really go home and pretend that he hadn’t been a thorn in the side of the republic his family worked so hard to build. He also wasn’t built to be a farmer. Sounded way too much like hard work. “Sir can I help you with something,” Poe hadn’t been watching where he was walking but it did look like he had his answer. He turned the bottle over in his hands. Correlian whisky, the good stuff.

“Yeah I’ll take a bottle, thanks,” Poe plastered a smile onto his face and paid for the bottle.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey meet Kes and get some explanation of Poe's mysterious past.   
> It seems the flyboy is not as well put together as they always assumed he was

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters was a lie  
> More to come

“Are we ever going to talk about the whole spice runner thing?” Rey sat cross-legged on the kitchen counter as Poe worked around her. The mighty trio had been ordered by Commanders Wedge Antilles and Lando Calrissian to take a few days break from the crusade to rid the galaxy of the remnants of the First Order. Apparently, Poe and Finn had been forgoing sleep for the past few weeks instead choosing to sneak around behind each other’s backs trying to co-ordinate the recovery missions into past first order territory and establish a functioning United Alliance of Planets. It took Rey sitting them both down and giving them a stern talking to for that to end. They both cautiously admitted what had been happening and also cautiously admitted the main reason why they had been avoiding each other. It was a bad day when Poe Dameron, self-proclaimed bisexual disaster, was the member of the trio most in tune with his emotions. Turns out that Poe thought Finn and Rey were in love with each other and destined to be together. Turns out Rey thought the same of Poe and Finn. And Finn just wanted his two best friends to like each other and them all to be happy together. Now they were. At least for now.

“I would rather not, not my finest hour,” Poe muttered, grabbing things out of cupboards with a practiced ease. Lando had demanded that the trio go to Yavin 4 for a holiday and to update Kes on all that had happened in the past couple of years. However, they arrived to Kes off world assisting with Stormtrooper rehabilitation and not back for a couple of days. Poe should have known his dad would answer the call for help. So Poe, Finn, and Rey were using the empty farmhouse to work somethings out in peace.

“It just doesn’t really fit you know, into the whole poster boy of the resistance thing,” Finn spoke up from his position lighting the fire. Poe had promised to cook some of Yavin’s finest cuisine for them that evening and they had spent the afternoon collecting the ingredients from the garden and the market with Poe muttering about he never wanted to be a farmer.

“A brief moment of teenage rebellion. I was going through a tough period and ran,” Poe spat out with more venom than he intended. Rey and Finn wisely backed away and they fell back into the easy comfortable movements around each other.

The force tree overwhelmed Finn and Rey. The ex-stormtrooper was slowly coming to terms with his connection to the force with Rey’s help but he had never felt anything so strongly in his life. It was a shroud pressing down on him. Finn felt like the pressure should be doing something to crush him but instead to was a comfort like there was someone there with him. Finn gripped Rey’s hand and saw the Jedi was gawping at the branches like she had finally found enlightenment. “When Luke was looking for the first Jedi temple, he travelled with my mother to a planet which had been taken by, what they thought were, the remnants of the Sith forces. They rescued books and resources from the crumbling structure. And took cuttings from the force tree. When my mum and dad set up a home base here, Luke gifted them a cutting,” Poe explained, dragging the stunned force users along behind him.

“It’s beautiful,” Rey stammered as she stroked the bark and leant her head against the trunk. Finn and Poe settled amongst the roots and waited for Rey to compose herself. “You don’t talk about your mother much,” Rey whispered still resting with her head against the tree.

“It hurts. To talk about her, I do with my dad sometimes,” Poe shrugged and curled into Finn’s one arm embrace as if it could protect him from the world.

“I think I can feel her, her energy,” Rey opened her eyes as Poe’s head whipped round. “This tree it has been collecting the power and moments from it’s history. There is still something left of her here,” Rey smiled and sat on Poe’s other side.

“Everyone that served with her just talks about Shara Bey, the true best pilot in the resistance. The things she could do in an A wing were magical and I dream of it being that effortless in the air. But to me she was just my mum. She taught me how to fly in the same way she taught me how to walk,” Poe was finally opening up to his two partners and Finn didn’t want to move, just in case it alerted Poe to all he was saying. “But she was gone a lot, fighting in the New Republic and helping Luke with his crusade. She wasn’t built for a life on the ground. She died when I was eight,” Poe leant his head into Finn’s neck as Rey wrapped her arm around his hip. The fell back into silence for a companionable moment.

“I guess that’s when things started to crumble here. Mum had come home for leave after a tough mission for Leia. She had come in for a rough landing but that was nothing different and she was fine, cleared medical. Then I went to wake her up the next morning as Dad and Grandad were away. She didn’t wake up,” the tears in Poe’s eyes physically pained Finn. They weren’t sure if it was the force but Rey and Finn were attuned to each other’s emotions and had a good sense when anything extreme was happening around Poe. “They think it was one too many knocks to the head for her brain to take. I should have noticed something was wrong that night, she was irritable and tired but I just thought it was over work,” Poe was frantic, scratching at his leg even within Rey and Finn’s embrace. They just held him and let him cry silently. Finn had no context within his own past to deal with the loss of a parent but he could see how much even thinking about it hurt Poe. Particularly now with the loss of Han, Leia and Luke on top of it. They must have been closer than anyone showed.

“Mijo?” Finn stirred from sleep to a gruff older voice calling out into the garden. Poe rolled over softly and stretched out like a cat with a nonsensical mumble. “Out here!” Poe shouted, shaking Rey awake too. Kes Dameron was the spitting image of his son except with a slighter frame and a twinge of grey in his hair. There was no doubt as to who it was. “Papa, good to see you!” Poe sprung to his feet and embraced Kes before he could get out of the door. Poe was just shorter than his father and they remained with the commander wrapped in his father’s arms as Finn and Rey helped each other to their feet. “This is Finn and Rey, guys this is my papa Kes,” Poe grinned, flanking Rey and lacing her fingers with his.

“I think they worked that one out for themselves mijo,” Kes laughed, shaking both Finn and Rey’s hands. “I’ve heard a lot about you both, come in. I brought food from Ithor for all four of us so you can catch me up on what’s been going on,” Kes lead them inside and Poe darted to plate up, fussing over his tired dad.

“How was Ithor?” Rey asked nervously, but wanting to break the tense silence.

“Beautiful as always. It’s tough work bringing the stormtroopers back into peaceful civilisation,” Kes shrugged, his voice faded away as he side eyed Finn. The Stormtrooper Rehab project was Finn’s baby. Most of the stormtroopers, as soon as they were removed from the First Order, choose to abandon ship. Kes’ team was in charge of making sure these recruits were provided for and had homes and jobs to settle into their new lives. Finn was well aware that Poe loathed the fact his father had been dragged into this but Kes’ authority and calming exterior was working wonders particularly with the kids; it did help he was also the father of the pilot who liberated FN-2187.

“It worked for me I’m sure they will get used to it,” Finn smiled as Poe returned with the food and warm coats for each of them. The temperature was plummeting, and Rey was still getting used to colder climates. Finn shrugged on the jacket and smiled at its familiar leather. He still carried round Poe’s newly repaired jacket with him even though he had so many other items of clothing that had been scrounged off other members of the rebellion. It was comforting after everything they had been through together.

“So that’s where that old thing ended up,” Kes gestured at the jacket and laughed as they tucked in to the food laid out in front of them.

“Do you mind?” Finn asked while blushing.

“It wasn’t mine?” Kes frowned turning to face Poe who was biting his lip.

“Well you always assumed it was my dad’s and it was a while before I noticed and them it would be weird to correct you,” Poe muttered quickly.

“Who’s was it then?” Rey was enjoying the awkwardness far too much and was totally there for the drama.

“It was Lando’s, gave it to you when he recruited you to Red Squadron right?” Kes recalled and Finn balked.

“I’ve been wearing it in front of him for months!”


End file.
